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“You fucking arsehole,” she sneers, snatching her hand back when I try to hold it against my face.

“I won’t apologise for protecting you, Angel.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?”

I shrug, standing by the decision Ant and I made to make our abduction look realistic.

If the Marianos were hunting her, if they saw us, then we needed them to believe we were on their side. If they knew we’d snatched her to take her to safety, then they’d be out for blood.

Mainly Ant’s.

“I want to go home,” she demands, still holding her ground in front of me.

“Not happening. We have everything you could need here.”

“Here? Where is here?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s safe. No one is going to touch you here.”

“No one?” she asks, tilting her head to the side. “Because it seems to me that Ant already has.”

“Careful, beautiful. I’ve let you have your fun with Ant, with Alex. My patience only extends so far,” I growl, closing the space between us.

Ant’s eyes bore into the side of my head, jealousy rearing its ugly head inside him. But fuck it.

He has to know that I care about her. And hell, he’s already holding enough of our secrets right now. What’s one more?

She gasps and Ant takes a step forward when my fingers wrap around her throat.

“I apologise if we were too rough with you, Angel. If we scared you. But something tells me that you wouldn’t have come willingly if we pulled up in a van and told you to get in the back.”

She swallows nervously, her pulse thundering against my fingers.

I don’t need her words. I can read her answers in the depth of her eyes.

“Get out,” she breathes.

“Ang—”

“No,” she cries, shoving me in the chest, forcing me to back up. “You don’t get to do this, Nikolas,” she taunts. “You don’t get to hide from me, to control me. To take my decisions away from me, even if it is in your fucked-up need to protect me.”

My lips part to respond, but I quickly realise that I have no answer that she’ll even consider accepting right now.

“Come on, man. Let’s give her some space,” Ant says, siding with her and walking toward the door.

“You haven’t eaten. You need food.”

“I’ll live,” she sneers, taking a massive step back, making me drop my hand and remove my touch from her.

Hate pours from her. And while I might despise that it’s directed at me. I still refuse to back down.

Being here, her not knowing where here actually is, is the right thing to do right now.

“I know you don’t understand,” I whisper. “But everything I’m doing is to protect you.”

“You’re right,” she hisses. “I don’t understand. And do you know why? Because no one trusts me with the truth. No one thinks I can handle it.”

“No, that’s not—”